Finished! well almost..

As I have previously mentioned I've been working on skirts (Simplicity-#  5914 is the  base) for dance company.  After pulling and all night-er and thinking i had these done after the first fitting, and then scramming around to make 7 pairs of short s(kwik sew #2723) to put underneath, I took everything in for what i thought was a final fitting, and that I would have to re-dye the shorts after I fitted them..

(Note photo is just a quick one taken with cell phone- they had 3 hours of rehearsal, and the its not the best looke with sloppy shirt hanging out etc. )



 I love to dye, but not when its matching colors- it gets too tricky.  This will be the third dye bath these shorts have seen.  First I made them a light tan- almost skin toned- but my dancer daughter informed me it would look like they had forgotten to wear underwear.  This kind of made me giggle, the skirt is designed off of the princess seem style but has been modified to have a large slit going up to the hip joint to increase ease of movement, and it meets the directors desires.  So we sat down on the computer and browsed the rit dye site to try and find a more compatible recipe- I'm thinking Khaki but it has too much green, and she said Caramel looked right.  Ehm - Caramel is a lovely shade but has too much yellow, and kind of does look just like Kraft's caramels.  But it also has the sheen from the nylon Lycra fabric which makes it look like a burnished gold.  Stands out way to much for tan/khaki skirts.  So now it looks like I'm going to try and do a grey and cocoa brown combo- hoping to get enough brown but not overwhelming, and just enough gray to not look green...Trying to keep these shorts less noticeable, but certainly not to look like they forgot to wear panties.  My goodness.

 And then half the skirts had to have some more alterations done on them.  Fitting dancers can be extremely trying.  When you ask they take off all their excess wear- for some reason some of them think still wearing 3 pairs of shorts- various lengths of a tights and leotard is necessary.  or the one who wears basketball shorts with the crotch down to the knees- yeah that's helpful when trying to measure..see my eyes roll here.  Although dance requires a free movement- amazingly the bodies must be scene as well.  The fit is always different from our street clothes.  so often your pattern says it has 1 1/2 inches or more of ease- my dancers want only about 1/2 inch (if that)  Garments must not shift out of place.  it can be quite challenging.  I figure 4 out of 7 were perfect- touch up on three isn't too bad.

Hopefully - not just hopefully- it must be a reality, this project will be turned over on Wednesday, with complete billing and finished. 
Then I can leave on my trip to San Francisco, Thursday with my daughter.